Making ships in bottles (SIBs) is but one branch of that ancient art of modelling ships, yet one that is popular the world over.
For most people ships in bottles are little more than a curiosity, but they are an art form in their own right, especially when the ship in the bottle is a scale replica of a real ship. The first question they ask is, “how did anyone manage to get such a large ship through such a small neck? Is it really possible?” Well, there are no magic formulae, nor tricks that cannot be explained away, so the correct answer is the most obvious one. In other words, what goes into the bottle must first pass through the neck, but therein lays the very crux of the puzzle itself. Even if the base of the bottle were to be removed, there is no model on earth that could withstand the 1200 degrees centigrade it would take to melt the glass to reseal it.

If the component parts of the model are made to a tried and tested formula, not only will they pass through the neck, but also once inside the bottle you will be able to manoeuvre them at will.

More than likely, you will have to do this Anyway –working from outside the bottle, extending your reach with purpose-made tools of around 25 cm in length. Don’t forget, a relatively simple job, easily accomplished on the workbench, may prove tricky, if not impossible, once the model is inside the bottle. We will come back to this later, to see how we can make use of thread, wire, paper hoops, and needles, or for that matter, anything else that will help us achieve our ends.

At one time or another, all of us who follow this ancient art, have been tempted to abandon our model at some stage in its construction. Yet, even the most seemingly impossible of problems can be overcome by patience, ingenuity, and the sheer refusal to give up.